OVD-Info filed an appeal to the St. Petersburg Ombudsman due to violations at the rally on April 21

OVD-info filed an appeal to the St. Petersburg Commissioner for Human Rights, Alexander Shishlov, regarding numerous violations at the April 21 rally in St. Petersburg.

In the appeal, OVD-Info made proposals to check the police departments from which information about human rights violations was received; investigate cases of unjustified violence on the part of law enforcement officers and check the compliance of the actual actions of police officers with their work regulations; eliminate discriminatory restrictions on public events due to coronavirus infection; investigate information about pressure on students in connection with participation in the action; check cases of prolonged detention or arrest of parents of young children.

Following the action on April 21 in support of Alexei Navalny, OVD-Info collected data on human rights violations in St. Petersburg. In this city, the violations were the most widespread: OVD-Info and various media outlets recorded numerous unjustified uses of force against protesters (including stun guns and other special equipment). People were detained in large groups (50-60 people in one bus), were not allowed to use the toilet for a long time and were not given food or water, and then were transported at night to different departments.

There were also a large number of violations in police departments. Fingerprints and other data were collected en masse from the detainees, their phones were taken away and their means of communication were deprived, their documents were taken away, and psychological violence was used, including for attempting to defend their rights. Police did not allow defense lawyers into some departments.

• On April 21, rallies in support of Navalny were held throughout Russia. A total of 1,967 people were detained , of which 893 were detained in St. Petersburg.
• In connection with the detention of Alexei Navalny, a series of protests took place throughout Russia. The largest protests took place on Saturday, January 23, and Sunday, January 31. Security forces reacted harshly to the protests: on January 23, more than 4,000 people were detained, and on January 31, more than 5,500 . On the day the sentence in the Yves Rocher case was changed to a real one,arrests also took place near the Moscow City Court building and in the center of Moscow, including journalists.
• Alexei Navalny decided to return to Russia after completing a course of treatment and rehabilitation in Germany: he was taken there by plane after being poisoned with Novichok, which the politician blamed on the FSB . After his return, he was detained and then taken into custody . Then the court satisfied the request of the Federal Penitentiary Service to replace Navalny’s suspended sentence with a real one in the Yves Rocher case.
• According to the court decision, Navalny will spend two and a half years in prison. The politicianwas transferred to a correctional colony in the Vladimir region. For almost a month, Navalny went on a hunger strike in the colony due to the fact that he was denied examination by his personal doctors.